VTOL and Landing mods (buttons you click to land the thing)

[Rushligh]

So I've been using Throttle Controlled Avionics for my VTOL ships for a while now and im looking for something more advanced. (Besides MechJeb which never works)
 

can anyone suggest any control mods to replace TCA, or work along side it?
(IE something that lets me land a vtol ship the first try instead of taking 20 minuets to get it atop the KSC helipad. )

[Diazo]

I'm going to recommend my own two mods of Vertical Velocity Control and Landing Aid, I wrote them pretty much exactly to deal with what you are asking for.

Vertical Velocity control does exactly that, hover, go up/down at a set speed, maintain a set altitude above ground, and so on.

Landing Aid is a horizontal control mod where you can either simply cancel horizontal velocity so you come down perfectly vertical to land, or you can select a point on the ground your vessel will hover over.

Note however that these mods don't provide engine thrust balancing, you'll want to leave TCA installed for that, or use another mod that provides that functionality.

[Rushligh]

Ooo, perfect. also, your other control mods... going riiight into my gamedata folder.

Im not sure if you know about how to fix this, but im having some problems with TCA: it doesn't set my acceleration right. if i set it to 0 upward acceleration with only balanced thrust (hover) and engines on it still not only rises, but gains vertivcle acceleration. it also won't power up my main engines unless my ship is at a 5-90 degree angle from the horizon, and between -5  to +5 supposed vertical acceleration.

Craft balances is not an issue, my engines are KSPI thermal hybrids, they're using atmosphere and MW to run, so no changes in fuel mass or position. i can't figure it out. using Davon's throttle mod won't work because TCA over rides the main engine throttles unless they're on manual, and if they're on manual the Davon throttle works all wrong...

[Diazo]

Keeping in mind that I'm not familiar with TCA, I would say that sounds like the UP direction is off by 90°.

So sitting on the pad, instead of UP being towards the sky, it's towards the horizon for some reasons. I can't help more then that, but maybe it helps?

As for the TCA vs. Davon, I would not recommend having both installed. They pretty much try to do the same thing so they will fight each other for which one has control.

D.

[Rushligh]

Ahh.  Davon's mod can't automate VTOL craft balancing (something my Cyclops ship really needs due to its speed and weight)> i think it's not TCA so much as an incompatibility with KSPI's thermal engine mechanic.

KSPI's engines have either a nucler rocket or jet module in them so that other mods can recognize and categorize them in VAB, but part of their actual thrust and effects are run by KSPI specific modules. basically all kspi engines have 2 engine modules in them that work together: i believe that's the problem. TCA and Damon are trying to manipulate the legacy module in the engines, but not the KSPI element. so they're only transforming half the thrust value. TCA still balances the craft because it compensates not for "supposed" values but by sampling and correcting orientation with the sas every frame.

anyway, i figured out the problem. just gunna leave this here in case anybody else has this issue in the future.

[Diazo]

I thought Davon's could balance thrust from multiple engines? It does default to off I believe however so you have to turn it on and in Davon's it works on a per-engine basis so you can have a heavy lift engine that doesn't auto-thrust and smaller balance engines that do.

Good that you figured out the issue though.

D.

[Rushligh]

12 hours ago, Diazo said:

I thought Davon's could balance thrust from multiple engines? It does default to off I believe however so you have to turn it on and in Davon's it works on a per-engine basis so you can have a heavy lift engine that doesn't auto-thrust and smaller balance engines that do.

Good that you figured out the issue though.

D.

Well yes, but davon's mod works based on thrust calculation, not active sampling like TCA. Think of TCA like a really advanced SAS core in charge of using engines like RCs modules, where Davon is like MechJeb; it works based off calculations. If there are variables it doesn't know the whole thing goes out of wack.